Jackson's 'penchant for young boys'

Michael Jackson's sex abuse trial will once again centre on what prosecutors say is the pop star's penchant for molesting young boys when testimony resumes in the sensational case today.

Among those who may testify for the prosecution are former employees of the 46-year-old entertainer's Neverland Valley Ranch who witnessed what they considered his inappropriate behavior around certain young boys.

The testimony follows a rare day off in the case as Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville had other business and Jackson attended funeral services for Johnnie Cochran, the "Trial of the Century" defense lawyer who represented Jackson when he was accused of sex abuse by a boy in 1993.

That case ended in a multimillion-dollar out-of-court settlement.

Jurors have already heard this week from a 24-year-old man who broke down in tears on the witness stand as he described being fondled three times between the ages of 7 and 10 by Jackson during what were ostensibly tickle sessions.

The man's mother, a former Neverland maid, testified on Tuesday that Jackson regularly shared his bed with Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin and another boy - whom she once discovered showering with the pop star.

Suspicious special friendships

The mother and her son also reached a civil settlement with Jackson for more than $2million in the mid-1990s. Jackson was never charged with a crime in that case.

"I came in and at first I thought they were playing in the bathtub or Jacuzzi and I didn't see them. ... I walked in and they were in the shower," the former housekeeper said, adding that two pairs of underwear lay on the floor nearby.

She said she could see two figures, Jackson and the boy, in the steamed-up shower and recognized the underwear from doing the singer's laundry.

In the current case, Jackson is charged with committing lewd acts on a 13-year-old boy at Neverland in early 2003 and plying the youth with alcohol in order to molest him.

He is also accused of conspiring with his associates to commit false imprisonment, child abduction and extortion.

The self-styled King of Pop, who has pleaded innocent, faces more than 20 years in prison if he is convicted on all 10 counts of a Santa Barbara County grand jury indictment.

Prosecutors say that over the past 15 years Jackson has formed suspicious "special friendships" with a series of adolescent boys. They are expected to call witnesses to testify about his relationship with five of them.

Among the five are two who reached out-of-court settlements with Jackson, and Culkin.

Representatives for the former child star, who insists that Jackson never behaved inappropriately with him, say he will not take part in the trial.

Jackson's lawyers say that his accusers, past and present, have been motivated by the prospect of lucrative settlements with the performer.

They have portrayed the now-15-year-old boy at the center of the current case as a liar who was goaded into inventing the abuse by his mother.